Oil

Stand well back!
I thought we might need bit of light relief from, "is Gordon Brown a bully?". A question that may one day get an answer but not just yet. A question that is still rolling along despite the best efforts of the spinners to make it go away. All along the common response to this story has been laughter. The thought of John Prescott talking up the PM's gentle side is hilarious, but then that is what he has been doing. I wonder what Craig Evans, the man punched by Prescott is up to? He did not become a celebrity after throwing an egg at Prescott, he was famous for not much longer than 15 minutes, it was different in those days. Mandelson never likes to be left out either, so he has delivered a smooth rebuttal of the charges against the PM. But this, coming from a man who has trouble filling in a Craig Evans eggs on John Prescott mortgage application form is no help at all! And then the PM's wife has a go, prompting the notion she is well on her way to a safe seat, what a laugh!

But down to business. The Blair/Bush relationship has always had a gruesome fascination. Did they pray together all those years ago before the invasion of Iraq? When Blair gets close to Bush something happens. For proof of this look at the picture. Blair must have been photographed a trillion times, for him the rictus is both instinctive and natural.